Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Nikki who loved to look at the sky. She was fascinated by the stars and the moon, but her favorite thing to watch was the sun. She wondered how the sun could shine so brightly and warmly every day.
One day, she asked her father, “Papa, how does the sun make light and heat?”
Her father smiled and said, “That’s a very good question, Nikki. The sun makes light and heat by a process called nuclear energy. Do you know what nuclear energy is?”
Nikki shook her head. She had never heard of nuclear energy.
Her father said, “Nuclear energy is a very powerful way of making energy from tiny things called atoms. Atoms are so small that you can’t see them with your eyes. They are the building blocks of everything in the world. Even you and I are made of atoms.”
Nikki was amazed. She couldn’t believe that she was made of tiny things that she couldn’t see.
Her father continued, “Atoms are made of even smaller things called protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are in the center of the atom, called the nucleus. Electrons are around the nucleus, like planets around the sun.”
He drew a picture of an atom on a piece of paper and showed it to Nikki.
Nikki looked at the picture and said, “So the nucleus is like the sun and the electrons are like the stars?”
Her father nodded and said, “Yes, that’s a good way to think about it. Now, in the sun, there are many atoms that are very close together. Sometimes, two atoms collide with each other and stick together. This is called fusion. When fusion happens, some of the mass of the atoms is converted into energy. This energy produced by Nuclear Fusion is what makes the sun shine and give us light and heat.”
He drew another picture of two atoms fusing together and releasing energy.
Nikki looked at the picture and said, “Wow, that’s amazing! So the sun is like a big ball of fire?”
Her father said, “Yes, you can say that. But fire is different from nuclear energy. Fire is a chemical reaction that involves oxygen and fuel. Nuclear energy is a physical reaction that involves atoms and nuclei.”
Nikki appreciated the concept of nuclear fusion and the process of heat and light production on Sun .
Short stories for kids 